Jan 24, 2009

IT'S so easy to spend money these days. I just went on an online shopping spree and bought these two books: Getting Things Done by famed management guru David Allen and Statistics: An Introduction using R by Michael Crawley. The first is a recent favourite of mine; I read it a few months ago after hearing a lot about it on Lifehacker. The second seems to be a really promising introduction to statistics and probability modelling using my favourite statistical software, R. The author just seems to get the art of explaining new concepts. I wish I'd had this book when starting introductory statistics in uni. Anyway.

After placing the order I got a sudden urge to check out the other, more well-known book on statistics using R: Introductory Statistics with R (by Peter Dalgaard, a well-known figure in the R software community). I guess I was afraid of making the wrong choice. Of course Amazon allows you to cancel or change your order before it's shipped, but it's still a hassle. But on previewing the table of contents and excerpts of the book, I was just relieved to see that it took a much more mechanical approach to teaching--not my cup of tea. I prefer Crawley's more explanatory approach, which cuts to the heart of what you're trying to do with the statistical methods you're using, rather than just what the methods are called and how to apply them.

This might have been the first time I didn't experience buyer's remorse after a shopping spree. Well, maybe the second time. I did get an awesome pair of casual shoes recently....